Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics Challenges and Opportunities (1999) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Automotive Industry
4 The Automotive Industry
Pages 53-84
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From page 53... ...
Manufacturing facilities include small specialty-parts plants, large foundries and engine and transmission plants, and vehicle assembly plants, which employ thousands of people and produce several hundred thousand vehicles per year. Automobile Manufacturing The industry's main products are automobiles, light and heavy trucks, and sport utility vehicles.
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From page 54... ...
t~,`~.~Inm~r.~ ~ 'I ul~rrlarlllers 1' | Maintenance | and repair shops of the recycled parts and materials becomes inputs to various automotive processes; the rest is used elsewhere in the economy. Each year approximately 10 million automobiles, buses, trucks, and motorcycles are processed by dismantlers, who supply 37 percent of the nation's ferrous scrap (American Automobile Manufacturers Association, 1994~.
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ss s~ 'e - v7 Vl ~ .
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33/50 program,2 and regional initiatives such as the Great Lakes persistent toxics (GLPT) program.3 Automakers also undertake pollution prevention efforts to improve water-, materials-, and energy-use efficiencies.
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CURRENT USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE METRICS Environmental performance metrics have emerged in the automobile industry in response to regulation and to take advantage of opportunities to improve efficiency. The metrics are summarized in Figure 4-3.
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Since 1988, Chrysler, Ford, and GM together have reduced TRI releases by 53 percent, when normalized against production volume (American Automobile Manufacturers Association, 1998~. Box 4-1 provides an example of how process changes resulted from efforts to reduce toxic emissions.
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Materials and energy inputs enter from the left; residues leave to the right. NOTE: VOCs = volatile organic compounds.
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Fifty solvents found in paints and adhesive solvents are among the 189 hazardous air pollutants regulated under Title III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. VOC emissions from these solvents occur during application, curing, and equipment cleaning operations.
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1~1 1 1 1 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Reporting Year ~ Foundry zinc HI GLPTs (excluding foundry zinc) Lo 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Reporting Year FIGURE 4-5 Great Lakes persistent toxic substance reportable production normalized and total releases for facilities belonging to the American Automobile Manufacturers Association.
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From page 63... ...
Energy is used to refine and process the raw materials, make the parts and components, assemble the vehicle, and deliver the product to showrooms. A recent life-cycle inventory estimated that about 164,000 MJ are used to produce a generic car (United States Automotive Materials Partnership, Life-Cycle Assessment Special Topics Group, 1997~.
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Product Metrics Environmental performance metrics for the automotive industry' s products, as for its manufacturing process, have been driven largely by regulations and focus on emissions, energy use, and recyclability.
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Design for recyclability guidelines has been adopted by all the vehicle manufacturers based on dismantling studies completed at the center; pilot programs are under way to recycle polyurethane from seats, thermoplastic olefins from bumpers, and nylon from carpeting. Quantitative inventory data are assembled for a large number of environmental performance metrics related to air, water, solid waste, resource use, and energy consumption; inventory results are reported for each of the life-cycle stages, and simulations are carried out to test the sensitivity of the results to the major assumptions and key parameters.
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From page 66... ...
Emissions from heavy-duty vehicles are also determined by EPA test procedures, but the metric is mass released per unit of engine power generated. Emissions control technology is an important component of powertrain systems, and considerable research and development underlies the current systems.
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From page 67... ...
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY 67 gent California requirements for ultra-low-emission vehicles and super-ultralow-emission vehicles. More recently, pollution prevention efforts have targeted evaporative emissions (i.e., fuel vapors that are produced in the fuel tank and in the fuel delivery system)
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68 o o o o CO ~ o o o o o o ~ CO CM 'e~/Sme'Dol!
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0.75~ ~5 an c' ~5 ° 0.50 an c' . _ an 2 (n 0.25 Nonhazardous Hazardous o 1 ANTI 1988 1 994 Year 1995 1996 2000 goal FIGURE 4-8 Hazardous and nonhazardous solid waste per vehicle produced.
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70 INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE METRICS 75 50 ~o ~ 25 o o 1993 1995 1996 1997 Year FIGURE 4-9 Packaging waste per vehicle produced. SOURCE: General Motors (1998~.
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. SOURCE: Ford Motor Company (1997~.
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Present State of Environmental Metrics A substantial number of environmental performance metrics are currently used and reported by the automotive industry. Table 4-3 lists the metrics being
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73 o u 4, in .
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Human health and safety R (HHSM) Federal and local discharge limits and operating hermits EPA list associated with health concerns 17 selected chemicals from TRI list for early action Concern for Great Lakes ecosystems and transfer to humans via food chain Concern for soil and groundwater contamination Reduce total energy consumption and operating costs Improve materials use efficiency Reduce water use and operating costs Reduce landfill waste and disposal cost Reduce landfill waste and disposal cost Reduce urban ozone to protect public health Reduce HC emissions contribution to tropospheric ozone production Limited via CAFE standards to reduce gasoline consumption and global warming gases Reduce landfill waste and disposal cost Healthy and safe workplace for employees, safe products for customers NOTES: CM1, CM2, CM3, CM4, CM5, E1, M1, M1R, M2, M2R, M3, M4, PM1, PM2, PM3, PM4, HHSM refer to metrics shown in Figure 4-3.
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As demand for im TABLE 4-4 Environmental Performance Metrics Used in Automotive Manufacturing and Vehicle Use Manufacturing Vehicle Use Resource Related Energy used in manufacturing by facilities (total by company and per vehicle produced) Water used Environmental Burden Related TRI 33/50 Chemicals Great Lakes persistent tonics SARA Title III chemicals Solid waste (per vehicle)
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From page 76... ...
In the near term, demands for more fuel efficient vehicles are expected to grow as nations around the world try to reduce CO2 emissions to address concerns about global warming. Meeting the demand for personal mobility on a global scale and addressing the associated traffic congestion problems will pose an additional challenge and add to the complexity of developing relevant environmental performance metrics to guide decision making.
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From page 77... ...
This leads to missed opportunities to highlight cost savings and waste reduction achieved through conservation of resources, recycling, and reuse. Efforts to capture some of these hidden costs include Chrysler's LCM evaluation of nontraditional costs as part of the company's search for low-cost alternatives that reduce environmental, health, and safety impacts.
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A key challenge for the auto industry is international standardization of environmental performance metrics and reporting practices. Interpretations of environmental metrics in automotive manufacturing need to take into account the different degrees of vertical integration among U.S.based companies.
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New and Possible Future Metrics Many of the metrics currently used are empirical, defined somewhat intuitively, and have their origin in regulations. The automotive industry seeks metrics that are easy to understand, are related to quantifiable environmental impacts, and are tied to business performance metrics such as return on assets, customer responses, and operating costs.
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Figure 4-8, which presents lifetime water usage data, shows the dominance of manufacturing, quite a different picture from energy consumption. Another factor in developing viable environmental performance metrics is the differences in market demand and economic growth between industrialized and industrializing countries.
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Business-Related Metrics One glaring deficiency in the current set of environmental performance metrics is the lack of a metric that is strongly linked to customer satisfaction. For example, in the case of CAFE, it has been shown that while energy efficiency improvements to vehicles have been made for a range of different reasons, there is a dissonance between efficiency standards and market signals.4 Metrics that capture less tangible values, such as a vehicle's "environmental performance," in terms of customer "utility," would marry both environmental and business imperatives.
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From page 82... ...
These in TABLE 4-5 Potential Future Environmental Performance Metrics, Drivers. and Environmental and Business Motivations in the Automotive Industry Metric Driver Environmental and Business Motivations Resource use Pollutant generation R Pollutants generated per V resource used Utility-based environmental V performance Repair frequency of pollution control devices Warranty cost on V pollution control devices A measure of efficiency in manufacturing and product usage A measure of efficiency in controlling pollutants A measure of efficiencies in both resource use and pollutant generation A measure of environmental performance based on customer utility Reflects the quality and resale values of vehicles and customer satisfaction Reflects the quality and resale values of vehicles and customer satisfaction NOTE: R = regulation driven; V = voluntary.
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Detroit: AAMA. American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA)
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From page 84... ...
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. United States Automotive Materials Partnership, Life-Cycle Assessment Special Topics Group.
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